- The Locker Room
- The Challenge
- Goal and Objectives
- The Game Changer
- Pre-Assessment Questions
- The Playbook
- Movie
- Slideshow
- The Stats
- Post Assessment Questions
- The Win
- Wrap Up
- Resources
- References
Mrs. Jane Clark is the principal at Wilson High School. Although her professional duties consume a lot of her time, she makes frequent classroom visits a priority in her schedule. One of her primary responsibilities involves observing her teachers and providing feedback on their teaching. She enjoys this task, not only because she supports her teachersÂ’' ongoing development, but also together they improve educational outcomes for students.
Mrs. Clark takes pride in doing her job well and wants her teachers to be prepared for the changes that are undoubtedly headed their way as a result of the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). The reauthorization will likely raise the proverbial bar for achieving "highly qualified" teacher status. As a result, district personnel have created a new teacher evaluation system -one component of which involves feedback. Realizing that many of her teachers suffer from "reform fatigue", Mrs. Clark is looking for the most effective way to introduce and sustain these changes at Wilson.
Through the grapevine, she has heard of eCoaching (formerly referred to as virtual coaching), a technology enabled approach to providing teachers with discreet immediate feedback while they are teaching, and has a hunch the approach might be a good fit for her teachers. They are already comfortable with the feedback she provides regularly in a post conference format. In fact, they want more! eCoaching would allow her (and others) to observe and offer feedback more often without always having to leave her office.
Although Mrs. Clark has heard good things about eCoaching, she knew she had to arm herself with the most up to date research supporting it -especially in an era of unprecedented accountability. Fortunately, she remembered a special issue of Educational Leadership that had been devoted to coaching a year or two ago. In fact, she had a copy on her bookshelf. Starting there paid off! She was able to quickly and easily trace the research support she needed.
Mrs. Clark hoped her teachers would share her excitement when she provided them with this information. Initially, some were apprehensive about using the new technology enabled approach to coaching in their classrooms. Others expressed some concern about the possibility of finding the immediate feedback too distracting. Much to Mrs. Clark's delight, however, most were intrigued and eager to give eCoaching a try!
The goal of this module is to review the research that supports eCoaching through online bug-in-ear technology.
After completing this module, you will be able to: